Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi
Read the text and complete the task below
Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi, (September 17, 1864 – April 25, 1913) was a Ukrainian author whose writings described typical Ukrainian life at the start of the 20th century. The popularity of his novels later led to some of them being made into movies.
Life
Kotsiubynskyi was born in Vinnytsia. He grew up in Bar, Vinnytsia region and several other towns and villages in Podillia, where his father worked as a civil servant. He attended the Sharhorod Religious Boarding School from 1876 until 1880. He continued his studies at the Kamianets-Podilskyi Theological Seminary, but in 1882 he was expelled from the school for his political activities. His first attempts at writing prose in 1884.
Early work and research
From 1888 to 1890, he was a member of the Vinnytsia Municipal Duma. During this period, he worked as a private tutor in and near Vinnytsia. There, he could study life in traditional Ukrainian villages, which was something he often came back to in his stories.
In 1890, he visited Galicia, where he met several other Ukrainian cultural figures including Ivan Franko and Volodymyr Hnatiuk. His first story Nasha Khatka was published in Lviv.
He moved to Chernihiv in 1898 where he worked as a statistician at the statistics bureau.
Writings
Fata Morgana, in two parts from 1904 and 1910, is probably his best-known work. Here he describes the typical social conflicts in the life of the Ukrainian village.
About twenty novels were published during Kotsiubynskyi's life. Several of them have been translated into other European languages.
Death
Because of a heart disease, Kotsiubynskyi spent long periods at different health resorts on Capri from 1909 to 1911. During the same period, he visited Greece and the Carpathians. In 1911 he was granted a pension from the Society of Friends of Ukrainian Scholarship, Literature, and Art that enabled him to quit his job and solely concentrate on his writings, but he was already in poor health and died only two years later.
Honors
A literary-memorial museum was opened in Vinnytsia in 1927 in the house where he was born. Later a memorial was created nearby.
The house in Chernihiv where he lived for the last 15 years of his life was turned into a museum in 1934. The house contains the author’s personal belongings.
Several movies have been based on Kotsiubynsky’s novels such as Koni ne vynni (1956), Dorohoiu tsinoiu (1957) and Tini zabutykh predkiv (1967).
Family
In January 1896, he married Vira Kotsiubynska.They had 4 children.
Task 1. Read the summary of the text and fill in the missing words
Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi is an outstanding Ukrainian (1)_____________________ . In his works he mainly depicts (2)___________________. Some of his novels were so popular that they became (3)__________.
Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi spent his early years in various (4)_________________, because of his father’s position as a (5)___________________________. His (6)___________ were connected with religion. However, he didn’t finish (7)_____________________ because of his political activities.
He was a member of the (8)______________________ . His visit to (9)___________ in 1890 led to meeting a few popular Ukrainian personalities. (10)_____________________ was printed in Lviv.
He managed to study lives of average Ukrainians due to his job as a (11)__________________________. His next job was a (12)_________________ in (13)______________ where he moved in 1898.
One of his most popular works is (14)____________________ which consists of (15)______________. Some of his novels (16)________________ into foreign languages.
Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi had problems with his(17)____________ which made spend a long time at (18)________________. He died 2 years after he was granted a (19)____________.
The house where Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi was born was turned into (20)_____________________. There is also a (21)______________ nearby. Another (22)_____________ was created in (23)___________.
His family consisted of (24)_______________ and (25)__________________________.